Wayward Sun

Sunday, February 1, 2009

From January 22 to January 29, I was in Denver for the Mid-Winter meeting of American Library Association. After being away for more than three years, it was nice to be back to Denver again. I met many old friends: Martha, Georgia, Tina, Jeannette, Tim, Anne, Jen, Joe, Liz ... I also got to see Kevin, Tina's hustband-to-be, as well as the two new moms: Jeannette, due in April and Robin, in May....

At noon, Friday, January 30th, I joined the other 400 members of United University Professions rallying at the State Capitol in support of restorations to the SUNY budget. In light of the current budget reductions, we sent our message to the Governor and the Legislature.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

It took me a while to add the tag cloud of this blog (see the side bar). Thanks for the clear instruction by Phydeaux3, I was able to "hack" the codes within a couple minutes and changed the color of the tag. Although this widget is quite limited in the range of color. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

It was unusually warm (in the 60s) and sunny on the Halloween day. I learned about the costume contest at the campus book store quite late yesterday and missed most of the contestants. Fortunately, the butchy but lovely Dorothy showed up and I snatched a few clips of "her." On my way back to Office, I also caught a glimp of a beautiful butterfly, but she quickly dashed away. Oh, well. Hopefully, I will be more prepared next year.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Weekend on campus during the regular semester is always full of events and activities. UAlbany Day is the highlight of the fall semester with returning alumni, friends and relatives of current students. The three-day celebration is full of events, showcases, performances, and games. Although it was cloundy on Satursday, the weather was quite nice on Friday and Sunday. After attending a few events, I have a better sense of the history, tradition, and culture of this insitution. A few photos I took are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shihwy1/sets/72157608338939758/

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Dexter Filkins, prize-winning war correspondent for the New York Times, was on campus to promote his new book, The Forever War(2008) on 10/16. I was very moved by his 8/22 New York Times Magazine article My Long War. When I visited the Allen Family in September, I was surprised to see that Bruce was reading this book as well.

I attended both his seminar and Reading. In both sessions, the rooms were almost full with quite a few students. He showed a few slides during his reading session. He told the audience that he has numerous near-death experience, which is also mentioned in his book, and his life insurance costs about $17,000 per month. Someone asked him if he will return to Iraq. He said that he has not made his decision yet.